


Flu Season

by akasharpiegirl



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Adorable Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Domestic Fluff, Extremis Pepper Potts (mentioned), F/M, Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Fluff, Jealous Tony Stark, Kid Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan Stark Needs a Hug (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan Stark-centric (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Pepper Potts doesn’t get sick, Pepper potts is a good mom, Precious Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Protective Tony Stark, Sick Character, Sickfic, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, Tony Stark is a Good Dad, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, While her mother doesn’t get sick, morgan definitely does, so she says at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:42:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27186067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akasharpiegirl/pseuds/akasharpiegirl
Summary: Eight-year-old Morgan comes down with the flu.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 41





	Flu Season

**Author's Note:**

> tw // mentions of throw up, doctors offices, food, and sicknesses. Please let me know if I missed something and I’ll add it in as soon as possible.

Ever since Morgan started school at the age of five, stay-at-home Dad Tony Stark had been the one to drop her off at school and drive her home every Monday through Friday… to make it less stressful for Pepper during the workweek. And on this December day, about a week after Morgan’s elementary school came back from Thanksgiving break, that was no different. Almost.

“Rise and shine, Maguna,” Tony announces upon opening the door to his eight-year-old’s bedroom at 7:30. She grumbles at the introduction while he grabs her Care Bears backpack (Morgan’s newest obsession, which made Pepper immensely happy) that sat in front of her nightstand and haphazardly put the school-designated planner in the biggest pouch. “Got a quiz in math class today—“

Morgan  _ coughs _ . 

“Are you sick, kiddo?”, Tony inquires, a sympathetic expression morphing on his face. She coughs again without an answer. “You better not be faking that.”

“Dad, I’m—“, Morgan barely gets out before she lets out a dry cough after another. She sounded absolutely miserable. “—not… I’m not faking it.”

“Got any other symptoms making you feel crummy?”, he asks, dropping the backpack on the striped white and grey rug and pulling aside an ottoman to sit at. 

“Head hurts,” Morgan says, just barely above a whisper. 

Upon her statement, he notices then that she has blankets wrapped around her body… but yet, a thin layer of sweat on her face. She’s shivering. He sighs, “Do you think you could sit up for a second, Morgan?”

She nods against the pillow before slowly pushing herself up into a seated position with her free hand that wasn’t holding onto her stuffed animal that poked its head through her quilt, her legs hanging off the side of the bed. She let out a soft whine as she sat up.

He barely lays the back of his palm on her forehead before pulling back, “Geez kid, you’re burning up.”

“I’m sorry,” Morgan mumbles, trying to hold back a cough. She fails to, but lets the blanket fall off her shoulder and covers the cough with the crook of her elbow this time around. 

“Don’t be sorry,” Tony frowns, but he holds out his left hand as he stands. “You want to come downstairs with me so I can confirm your temp or are you more comfy staying here? I’m fine with either way.”

She wordlessly throws her giant quilt over her shoulder, takes her father’s hand in her right, and stands up. She still has a death grip on her Bedtime Bear plush in her left. Morgan follows him downstairs and crashes on the couch, going into a coughing fit when her head hits one of the pillows. 

Tony makes his way to the kitchen and scrounges around for the thermometer. Upon finding it on the bottom shelf in one of the cupboards, he finds himself wondering why he and Pepper hadn’t invested in a forehead temperature scanner one just yet. He quickly runs the thermometer under cold water and dries it off with a clean paper towel before walking over to his sick youngling. He sits down on the adjacent seat and holds out the thermometer for her to take from him.

Morgan hesitantly takes the thermometer from him, presses the ‘on’ switch, and rests it under her tongue with a closed mouth. 

A low beep goes off about twenty seconds later and she hands it back to her Dad to inspect.

“Shoot, 101.7. Yeah, you’ve definitely got somethin’”, Tony says upon looking at the digital screen that stared back at him. “Do you have any other symptoms? Tummy hurt or anything? I’d have FRI diagnose ya but she’s down for updates… so Dr. Banner it is.”

“Everythin’ hurts,” Morgan mumbles.

”Do you want anything to eat?”

”I don’t wanna eat anything,” Morgan mumbles.

“Well, just to be safe…”, Tony says, standing up again. “Would you like some oatmeal? Apple juice? You don’t need to eat it all or fast, just a little bit. Okay?”

Morgan lets out a quiet and short whine as an answer.

“Those sound good? Yes or no?”, Tony restates. “I need a clear answer, Morgan.”

She raises a brow at his persistence and just nods.

“Okay,” he answers, walking back toward the kitchen. “While I get that going, I’m gonna call your Mama so the infinite campus absence tracker doesn’t make her freak out and then let jolly green know we’re stopping by soon.”

Tony clicks Pepper’s contact and holds his phone between his cheek and his shoulder as he searches for the box of oatmeal in question. Four rings go by and he gets, ‘Hello, this is Pepper Potts-Stark and I cannot attend to your call at this time. Please leave a message at the beep and I’ll get back to you when I can. Thank you, have a good rest of your day.’ 

He curses under his breath when he hears the prerecorded message. “Hey, Pep. The girl’s come down with something. Maybe the flu? I’m not too sure just yet.” Morgan has another coughing fit, causing him to turn around to glance at her once he found the food item in question. “Fever, coughing so bad she could hack up a lung if she weren’t careful, muscle soreness… all I’ve seen so far. Keeping her home, so don’t freak if her teacher sends out a report saying that she’s absent. Love you, honey.”

He ends the call as he turns back to the cupboards and pulls out a small cereal bowl. As he does so, he scrolls for Bruce’s number. He actually answers.

———

“She doesn’t want to talk, so,” Tony says to Bruce once they make it to Bruce’s practice. “Morgan woke up this morning for school with a bad cough, has a fever, and she threw up about fifteen minutes before we left after eating some oatmeal and drinking a few sips of apple juice. She ate a few crackers once the nausea subsided, and well... so far, so good. I have a pretty good feeling it’s the flu, but I don’t want to treat something she doesn’t actually have.”

Bruce frowns at the shy and exhausted eight-year-old that sat on the table as he checks her temperature himself. “Well, it sounds like the flu to me. I’ll do a rapid test just to be sure, but it seems you hit it on the nail. It’ll take about fifteen minutes before I get a result.” He throws away the protective layer on the thermometer and types data into her chart.

“Did her temperature climb any?”, Tony asks as Morgan has another coughing fit.

“38.7 degrees Celsius,” Bruce answers. “So, no. I’m going to grab what I need for the flu test and I’ll be back in a second.” He exits the small room and Morgan falls back on the table.

She looks at her Dad, “It hurts so much, Daddy.”

“I know, kiddo. I know,” Tony says quietly to her. “I’m so sorry.”

About thirty minutes pass from then. 

“Well, Morgan has Influenza type B,” Bruce answers as soon as he returns. “Children’s ibuprofen, cough suppressant, and throat lozenges are best bet for temporarily alleviating symptoms. Drink lots of water and try to get some rest. It’ll hopefully clear up in around seven to ten days. I hope you feel better soon, Morgan.”

“Thanks…”, she says under her breath. 

———

“Meds should kick in soon. In an hour or so,” Tony says as she takes the bubblegum flavored children’s Motrin from the portion cup. She hands it back to him after taking the dosage before walking over to the couch again and laying on her back. “You need to eat again soon.”

“I don’ wanna,” Morgan complains. 

“I know you don’t  _ want _ to,” Tony says sympathetically as he rinses the cup and lays it atop the bottle of medicine. “But you’ve got to eat something, kiddo.” 

“You’re mean,” she says before another cough escapes. 

“I’m not mean,” Tony shakes his head as he pulls a loaf of bread from the kitchen island. “I’m just a Dad trying to take care of his plague-ridden daughter.”

“I don’t have the plague, Daddy,” the eight-year-old mumbles. 

“I’m just teasing,” he lets out a small chuckle. “I’m making toast, say the word if you want a piece.”

“Please,” Morgan croaks. 

———

“I can’t sleep,” a very sleepy Morgan says as she walks down the stairs from her bedroom about six hours after taking her medicine. It was almost four now. She had been trying to sleep since one PM. 

Tony looks behind him and frowns at his daughter, “I’m sorry, kiddo. Want to hang with me?” 

She nods wordlessly before walking around the couch to sit next to him. She wraps her blanket around her and tightens her grasp on her plushie, spotting the crackers she’s been snacking on all day sitting on the coffee table. 

Tony looks around the room for a second before focusing on the TV remote. “Hey, Mo. Since you can’t sleep, want me to turn on a movie or something?”

“Sure,” she mumbles. 

He turns on the TV and finds their film library, “Tell me when and I’ll stop on one you want to watch.”

He navigates through about fifteen kids movies that they owned before she interrupts him, “Wait, go back one. I like that one.”

“Okay,” Tony says before starting the film. It was a historical fiction movie that was based off of a character made by American Girl—Samantha. It was a common movie in their house ever since Morgan had been introduced to the dolls through Pepper... especially around the holidays. Morgan often says that Uncle Gard reminds her a lot of the way Tony interacts with her. 

After about fifteen minutes since the film’s beginning, Morgan had found herself laying in her Dad’s comforting embrace. 

“Mama’s going to be home in about an hour,” Tony says in a quiet tone as a scene changes. 

And just as he said, Pepper did unlock the door and enter their home about an hour later just when the movie concludes it’s final scene. But Morgan had finally fallen asleep sometime before that point. 

“Aw, look at you two,” she gushes right after turning around from locking the door as she sees her husband comforting their daughter’s sleeping frame. “Did she fall asleep as soon as she got home from school or—“

“No, um… you didn’t get my voicemail?”, he whispers back. “She’s sick. The flu.”

“Oh, poor kid,” Pepper frowns. “I’m sorry I didn’t see it. I hadn’t looked at my phone all day until I was about to leave.”

“It’s okay,” he says. “We managed. I gave her ibuprofen about seven hours ago. I’m going to check her temp when she wakes and give her another dose if needed.”

Pepper nods before she starts attempting to hold in a laugh.

“What’s... so funny?”, Tony raises a brow.

“The only children’s fever reducer we currently possess is  _ Motrin _ ,” she answers, there’s a glimmer of amusement on her face. 

“Yeah, and?”

“You seriously don’t remember?”, Pepper inquires, setting her things down. 

“No?”, he asks. 

“You really don’t remember when you had a meltdown because you thought I was offering you Midol instead of Motrin back in 2010?”, she prods quietly as she sits down at the adjacent seat. 

“Yeah, no. I’m not following,” he shakes his head. “You sure that wasn’t a dream?”

“‘ _ I’m not on my cycle Pepper _ ’ doesn’t ring any bells, huh?”, Pepper muses as she slips off her heels. “I wish I had the ability to forget my embarrassing moments as well as you did… I’d be able to forget all moments of my high school career if I had.”

“I really doubt that I  _ ever  _ said that, but—“, he barely gets out when he notices that Morgan stirs just slightly. She quickly relaxes again. “—I’ll take your word for it.”

“Good thing I love you,” Pepper teases. “But I’m not kissing you until you’re in the clear, I’ve never had a sick day since high school.”

He gapes before forming a frown, “That’s mean. Marriage is ‘in sickness and in health’ so if I go down, you’re going down with me.”

“That’s not how sickness works, Mommy,” Morgan mumbles as she opens her eyes. 

“Thank you for having my back, Goona,” Tony snickers as Pepper tsks. “How are you feeling? You didn’t sleep that much.”

Morgan wordlessly grumbles before sitting up again, wrapping herself in the blanket that had been laying over her when she was napping. 

“I’m sorry you’re not feeling good,” Pepper sympathetically smiles at her daughter. “Is there anything you feel okay with eating for dinner? Anything you want.”

Morgan shakes her head before going into a dry coughing fit for the first time in awhile. 

“She tried to eat oatmeal for breakfast, but that didn’t go well. Saltine crackers and toast were fine,” Tony says. 

Pepper appears lost in thought for a second before snapping her fingers. “What do you think about giving noodle soup a try, hm? We have a can or two in the pantry, I think.”

———

After dinner and giving Morgan her cough suppressant and her fever reducer, the Stark family found themselves starting a game of Life to keep Morgan’s mind off of her sickness.

“Aha, I met Rhodey,” Tony jokes as he lands on the ‘met a lifelong friend’ space. After picking up the life tile from the pile and setting it down, he looks at Morgan. “You going to college or going straight for a career?”

“I don’t wanna forfeit one hundred thousand,” Morgan shrugs as she goes ahead to spin a 5.

“But college helps you out in the long run,” Pepper encourages.

“But I’m broke!”, the eight year old yelps jokingly.

“Kiddo, we’re all broke in this game,” Pepper muses.

“Not for long,” Tony mutters. 

“ _ Fine _ ,” Morgan says before moving the green player piece up five places to the ‘take a semester abroad’ life space, just behind her mother. Tony takes the college tuition from her money pile and places another life tile in front of her.

“Aw, I wanted to do the study abroad program in college,” Pepper frowns momentarily After Morgan announces what spot she landed on. “My university had this program that partnered with a university in Italy and I didn’t get the spot.”

“I’m sorry,” Tony says sympathetically. “Hey, good thing is. You’ve been to Italy now. And, you’re married to an Italian. Win-win.”

Pepper nods at him before she spins a five, finding herself at the graduation spot. She holds back a laugh when she sees her two options: teacher and lawyer. “Well, my ten year old self is gonna be disappointed in my choices in this fictional realm too…”, she says as she returns the teacher card.

“You wanted to be a teacher?”, Morgan asks. 

Pepper hums, “I did. Changed my major in the middle of my freshman year to business and if I hadn’t a lot of things would be very different. ...and I’m currently very pleased with the way things are, Mo.”

“Does Goona know the story of how we met?”, Tony grins as Pepper takes the extra turn. 

“No?”, Morgan asks as she suppresses a cough.

Pepper’s eyes widen, “I’ll give you my entire stash of Life money if you  _ don’t  _ tell her that story.”

“That’s not worth anything in real life!”, Tony laughs. 

“Dang, fine,” Pepper fake pouts as Tony spins.

“Is it funny? If not, I don’t wanna hear it right now,” Morgan asks curiously after Tony took his turn and as she moves her car to the graduation spot and picks from the deck of career cards. “Oh, and I’m a vet.”

“Oh, it’s funny alright,” Tony snickers as Pepper scrunches up her face in disgust and Morgan takes her second turn. 

A few turns later, after Tony shares the tale of his and Pepper’s first interaction (which resulted in a little giggle from their daughter… followed by a short lived coughing fit), Pepper was the first in the game to get married. “Hand me a blue player peg, please,” she says with a sweet smile.

“Who’s Mr. Blue player, Pep? Who’s he?”, Tony asks as he hands her the small item. “Cause your husband’s right here, I can’t be two places at once.” He points to his tiny red car that trailed a few spaces behind her. 

She smirks before saying oh-so-casually, “Probably the cute guy I had a crush on in my business stats class in college.” 

“Oh?”, Tony blinks. 

“Don’t get jealous, honey,” Pepper holds in a laugh. “He made a misogynistic joke in class one time and it went away.” Since the couple wasn’t sitting far away from each other, she leans over to him and gives him a short and sweet kiss on the lips. “I’m probably going to regret that, but I need to curb your jealousy, so...”

At Tony’s next turn, his player gets married to another blue peg. 

“Who’s that, Dad?”, Morgan interjects.

“Yeah, who took my husband?”, Pepper jokes.

“Rhodey and I made a pact in college that if neither of us were married by the time we both turned fifty, we’d get hitched,” Tony shrugs. 

“Did you actually?”, Pepper baffles.

“It was a joke, but yeah? Kinda?”, Tony says. “Before I asked you to marry me, he’d randomly call me up and say ‘you gonna ask her to marry you or settle for me’ to get under my skin.”

“Classic Rhodes,” Pepper muses.

After Morgan’s character gets married and Tony jokes about doing a hefty background check on her blue peg, the game continues on… Tony gains a log cabin, Pepper gains the tudor house, and Morgan gains the windmill home. Pepper has two kids, a boy and a girl. Tony’s fake family has three girls. Morgan’s fake family remains childless. Morgan finishes first, residing at millionaire acres with just over one million dollars stored. Pepper resides there too, with 1.3 million stored away. Meanwhile, Tony’s fake family resides at Countryside Acres because ‘It is too much of an investment risk to stay over there’, despite reigning in 1.2 million.

Tony wins.

———

About six days pass and Tony wakes up to the sound of Pepper’s alarm ringing on a Thursday morning. So far, he had avoided the ‘plague’ and Morgan was starting to feel like her old self again. She’d probably be able to go back to in person school starting this coming Monday.

He closes his eyes again, knowing Morgan still wouldn’t be back to in person classes again for a few days so he could sleep in. 

But his attempt at sleeping in a bit longer is interrupted when he hears a cough come from Pepper’s side of the bed. 

“Pep, you okay?”, Tony asks as he rolls over to face her side. 

She grumbles as she looks at him, “I’m fine.”

“I’m pretty sure you just coughed,” Tony says. 

“That doesn’t mean—“ Cough. Cough. “—A-Anything. It’s probably just a cold.” 

He snickers before shaking his head, “Let me check your temp.” He sits up and grabs the new forehead temperature scanner from his nightstand. 

“No,” Pepper grimaces before a coughing fit comes from her. 

“Bangs up, Mrs. Stark,” Tony says as he faces her again, sitting on the bed in ‘criss-cross applesauce’ as Morgan would call it. 

She shakes her head.

“Please?”, he asks.

Pepper sighs, rolls her eyes, and pushes her bangs up just before Tony holds the scanner in front of her forehead. She deflects, “It’s not like I’m  _ actually  _ going to have a fever, Tony—“

“Ah, nope. 102.1,” Tony says as he pulls the scanner back. “You need to stay home, hon.”

She whines as she lets her bangs fall back on her forehead, “This is not fair! I’ve never had a sick day. This is all because I gave you a kiss!”

“There’s actually no evidence that I had the flu,” Tony says with a shake of the head. “You probably caught it from your baby girl who’s been clingy to you when I’m not the only one home.”

“She’s  _ ours _ ,” Pepper corrects before coughing again.

Tony hums, “She is. Would you like ibuprofen to bring down your fever, my love?”

She nods with an unconvinced look.

“I’ll let your assistant know to reschedule your meetings while I’m downstairs,” Tony says before sitting the thermometer on his nightstand and stepping out. 

He returns a few minutes later, to Pepper who was coughing into her elbow. Tony sets down the water cup and the two ibuprofen tablets on her nightstand before walking back over to his side. 

After Pepper takes them, Tony finds himself holding his theoretically-burning-up wife in his arms and not minding her temperature a bit. He’s seen her actually  _ burning  _ before, so this was no biggie. 

“Can I get a kiss?”, Pepper asks with humor in her voice a few moments later. 

“Mhm,” he hums before sharing a chaste kiss with her. “If you get sick, I get sick with ya. That’s what marriage is,” he jokes. 

“I hate flu season,” Pepper mumbles.

“I know, me too,” Tony says quietly. “Morgan’s going to be up in a few hours, you should try to get some more—“ He hears a soft snore come from Pepper. “—sleep.”

It’s not long after that when he falls back asleep too. 

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine that Bruce in this fic timeline opened up an affordable family practice clinic sometime after endgame and despite the Stark’s being able to afford anywhere else, Tony prefers to take Morgan to see Bruce because he’s trustworthy. That is all.
> 
> Thank you for reading, it means so much!! If you liked, please leave kudos, comments, or share with your marvel lovin’ friends! 
> 
> Check out my socials!  
> Twitter: aoskayla  
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl


End file.
